SPD444 Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 We finished off another brilliant season with our very first performances at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow earlier this month. We’re now pleased to announce promotions and new joiners for next season. Promotions Congratulations to our dancers being promoted within the Company: Aitor Arrieta, Katja Khaniukova and Ken Saruhashi are promoted to First Soloist Julia Conway, Daniel McCormick and Erik Woolhouse are promoted to First Artist Emilia Cadorin is promoted to 7th Year Artist of the Company Stina Quagebeur will become First Artist & Associate Choreographer. Following the premiere of Nora, her first main stage work for our triple bill She Persisted, Stina will now divide her time between performances and work offstage, including choreography and work with young dancers through our Engagement team and English National Ballet School. Joining the Company Chloe Keneally joins as Artist of the Company from English National Ballet School. Keneally was the winner of the ballet category of BBC Young Dancer 2019 and has previously performed with English National Ballet in Nutcracker and My First Ballet: Swan Lake. As previously announced, international ballet star, Brooklyn Mack, will perform with English National Ballet as a Guest Artist during the Autumn-Winter 2019/2020 season. Mack last performed with us in 2016, in Le Corsaire. Breanna Foad will return as Artist of the Company, joining until the end of the London Coliseum season. Mayumi Ganley joins the Artistic team as Ballet Mistress, alongside new Ballet Masters Laurent Gilbaud and Renato Paroni de Castro, who joined mid-season. Farewell Principal Begoña Cao leaves English National Ballet to pursue other projects after an impressive 22 years with the Company. Artist of the Company Shale Wagman left at the end of the season. Artist of the Company Connie Vowles left the Company in January to join Dutch National Ballet. After 27 years at English National Ballet, Company Pianist Chris Swithinbank leaves at the end of the season to pursue other musical interests. His final time playing for Company Class took place during our tour to Moscow earlier this month at the Bolshoi Theatre’s New Stage. We wish them all the best for the future! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Oh dear, wait for the tears to start falling ... Thanks, SPD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Yes this email dropped in my box earlier this morning so final confirmation that Shale Wagman has left the Company 😢 I will be interested to see what he does do .....he may be still considering offers which is why he has not said anything or perhaps he was just waiting for this official announcement from ENB before he declares his intentions! Otherwise nothing particularly exciting about this announcement but well deserved promotions to those who got it especially Katja Khaniukova. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizbie1 Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 I’m sadder to see Begoña Cao go ;( 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Really pleased about the promotions - so well-deserved. I'm so sorry that Begona Cao has left and wish that more could have been said about this wonderful dancer in the press release. Thank you, Begona, for all the pleasure your performances have given over so many years. Your Manon last season was especially superb. The structure of the Company now seems rather unusual. I've just counted 8 Lead Principals (one of them shared with National Ballet of Canada); 2 Principals (one of them shared with NBC); 12 First Soloists (one of them shared with NBC); 2 Soloists; 3 Junior Soloists; 14 First Artists and 33 Artists, plus 2 Character Artists and 1 Guest Principal. This does mean that dancers in the lower ranks have opportunities to take leading roles but.............!!! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annamk Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 I am really pleased too, every promotion is well deserved, although I am especially happy about Arrieta ! Sad about Begona Cao - her performances with Arrieta last season were so memorable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 39 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said: I’m sadder to see Begoña Cao go ;( Indeed, especially having missed her Manon (it was the *only* cast I couldn't make myself free for!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 3 hours ago, capybara said: I'm so sorry that Begona Cao has left and wish that more could have been said about this wonderful dancer in the press release. Thank you, Begona, for all the pleasure your performances have given over so many years. Your Manon last season was especially superb. Hear, hear! She's been underused in recent years, but I was very glad I didn't miss her Manon. Wishing her all the best for the future. And yes, well-deserved promotions, as far as I can see (I haven't had a lot of chance to identify some of the dancers this past season). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNC Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 What is '7th Year Artist of the Company' - is this a rank? Do you simply get it for being with the company for 7 years? Sorry if this is a silly question but it's a bit odd if it is what it sounds like? Shame to see some good names go, especially Cao (although understandable she may want a change after this length of time) and the promising Shale Wagman, presume he is at Mariinsky now, a loss for ENB but again, understandable in terms of his career development. Glad to see Stina is moving more into choreography - I think it will be good for ENB to have a 'resident' choreographer of some sort and shows that Tamara Rojo is continuing to invest in the company and produce new work. It does seem rather a clinical statement - understand that it needs to be professional but only a sentence each (especially considering Cao and Smithbank's extremely long time spent with the company) seems a bit...impersonal? Even a brief quote from Tamara or something would have added that extra level of something. But I guess as long as their service was noted within the company and they got a proper send-off that's what counts. Wish them best of luck for their future endeavours. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 3 minutes ago, JNC said: What is '7th Year Artist of the Company' - is this a rank? Do you simply get it for being with the company for 7 years? Sorry if this is a silly question but it's a bit odd if it is what it sounds like? I was wondering the same. Surely if it were an automatic progression you'd have every dancer in the corps named as moving from Year X Artist to Year X+1 Artist... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 I think it's a pay grade. Certainly, it doesn't necessarily reflect the time served in the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNC Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 1 minute ago, RuthE said: I was wondering the same. Surely if it were an automatic progression you'd have every dancer in the corps named as moving from Year X Artist to Year X+1 Artist... Agree - is there anything particular about 7 years? If you look here there is no special category for '7th year artist' (or any other named year): https://www.ballet.org.uk/the-company/dancers And the page seems to have been updated recently as Cao and Wagman are no longer listed. I can only think perhaps it's some sort of honorary title in order to award her loyalty/years to the company without *actually* promoting her and giving her a higher rank. Maybe it comes with a higher salary? (Maybe in order to justify a higher salary they had to give the rank?) Agree with @capybara that the distribution seems all over the place. With only 2 principals it makes sense to either move them up to 'lead principals' (and just have that simply as 'principals') or combine principal with first soloist. Similarly, 'soloist' and 'junior soloist' should just be combined. In my opinion of course, I'm sure there is some sort of logic to it but it seems like they have stuck with historical categories and not really restructured when the numbers/balance seems to require it, and now I imagine it would cause a lot of awkwardness to do a restructure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 "Lead principal" was a rank introduced by Tamara Rojo, IIRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 (edited) 7 minutes ago, JNC said: I can only think perhaps it's some sort of honorary title in order to award her loyalty/years to the company without *actually* promoting her and giving her a higher rank. Maybe it comes with a higher salary? (Maybe in order to justify a higher salary they had to give the rank?) And I wonder if it's counter-productive to announce it as such (even if one gets a nominal payrise for it), because not everybody reading the announcement, and certainly not every dancer, will consider having been in the corps for a really long time to be something to shout about. It may have a questionable effect on a dancer's morale, even if it is ostensibly an long service award. Edited July 29, 2019 by RuthE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNC Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 3 minutes ago, RuthE said: And I wonder if it's counter-productive to announce it as such (even if one gets a nominal payrise for it), because not everybody reading the announcement, and certainly not every dancer, will consider having been in the corps for a really long time to be something to shout about. It may have a questionable effect on a dancer's morale, even if it is ostensibly an long service award. I agree and disagree. I think it may actually boost morale in the sense that not all dancers (as good as they are to have made it into a professional career) will never reach certain levels, and so recognition for being in the corps for such a long period actually recognises their commitment/loyalty to their profession/company and that fact that without the corps you couldn't have a company! Look at the RB for example, I presume some of the corps there could get soloist/principal roles in other companies but they choose to stay. (Although another way of looking at it would be there will always be someone wiling to fill the role in the corps so high turnover at this level may not necessarily be a bad thing...I am personally not aware of the levels of turnover at corps level at ENB or RB so have no idea!) I imagine the dancer in question was made aware of this promotion prior to announcement and therefore I imagine they wouldn't mind it have been publicised. If anything it would be worst for their morale surely if they were going to give a promotion in recognition but didn't want to list it on their webpage/news as if it wasn't fitting as a real promotion (which admittedly in a sense it's not, but why bother awarding it if you're not proud of it and stand by it?). However for the general public reading it I agree it is a bit of an awkward one (without explanation of what it is it leads to questions such as we are asking) and re company morale in the sense that other corps in ENB may now firstly automatically expect some sort of award for long service in future, whether this is in one rank or perhaps split across many ranks (e.g. if you are a soloist and you have 7 or more years with the company where is your pay award, are you being penalised for having been 'actually' promoted) and secondly it raises the whole talent vs. length of service/loyalty and how that should/shouldn't be rewarded in a fair way. I feel we have diverged quite a lot from the topic so I won't say anything more on this point, apart from I hope it's what the dancer in question wanted and that they are happy with it, and congratulations/good luck to them! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irmgard Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 42 minutes ago, alison said: "Lead principal" was a rank introduced by Tamara Rojo, IIRC. Actually, I believe it was Wayne Eagling who introduced the rank but he called it Senior Principal. Being promoted to 7th Year Artist relates to a higher pay grade only. I will pay tribute to the magnificent Begona Cao later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Begona may have not been around at one point as she had a child .....she was very pregnant when taking a workshop at Markova House about 18 months ago now though ( and very good it was too she has such expressive eyes) Perhaps she is taking a family break but dancers have to be aware of when an end of career may be not far off and what they will do then and make preparations etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawnstar Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 3 hours ago, JNC said: Agree with @capybara that the distribution seems all over the place. With only 2 principals it makes sense to either move them up to 'lead principals' (and just have that simply as 'principals') or combine principal with first soloist. Similarly, 'soloist' and 'junior soloist' should just be combined. In my opinion of course, I'm sure there is some sort of logic to it but it seems like they have stuck with historical categories and not really restructured when the numbers/balance seems to require it, and now I imagine it would cause a lot of awkwardness to do a restructure! 'Junior soloist' sounds to me like the sort of rank that should be given to up-and-coming young dancers. However looking at ENB's website the 3 dancers at that rank are all very experienced so calling them 'junior' anything seems rather odd to me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabine0308 Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 1 hour ago, Dawnstar said: 'Junior soloist' sounds to me like the sort of rank that should be given to up-and-coming young dancers. However looking at ENB's website the 3 dancers at that rank are all very experienced so calling them 'junior' anything seems rather odd to me. This crazy ranking system gives me a headache. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 4 hours ago, Irmgard said: Actually, I believe it was Wayne Eagling who introduced the rank but he called it Senior Principal. Oh yes, Senior Principal existed some years before - possibly even (quite a bit?) earlier than Eagling's tenure?. But I think the ranks were tweaked, at least, under Rojo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD Driver Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 So only 1 student from ENBS is joining the Co. this year. I believe it was 4 last year. I heard someone say that it would be a particularly difficult year for graduates of the school - as dancers might be reluctant to leave the Co. this year when there is the excitement of the exciting home at London City Island. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 The situation appears to be pretty similar in other companies, too. It's a difficult year 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irmgard Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 (edited) As the ENB publicity machine has only seen fit to allot one sentence to the departure of principal Begoña Cao, I thought I would try to rectify this by paying my own tribute to this exceptional artist. Cao was born in London of Spanish parents and trained at Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet School. Upon graduation, she was immediately offered a contract by Derek Deane to join English National Ballet and has remained with the company ever since, notching up an amazing twenty-two years. Her early chance to make her debut as Odette/Odile at the age of twenty-one was cruelly snatched from her by a dislocated knee and she had to wait a number of years to take on all the classical ballerina roles, although she did appear as Giselle in Deane’s production. At that time, I was not going to many ballet performances but, in 2005, she caught my attention in the revival of Mary Skeaping’s “Giselle”, dancing the second Wili solo (Moyna in this production). When I say dancing, I really mean ethereally floating through it in a way that gave me goosebumps by the sheer beauty of her movement. She had to wait until 2009 to take on the title role, dancing with no fewer than three Albrechts during the season, and I remember with great pleasure working with her on the character of Giselle, particularly in honing the mime scenes, and how hungry she was to learn all she could about the character. Before that, I tried to get to as many of her performances in other ballets as possible. These included her amazing debut as Odette/Odile in 2008 at the Coliseum, partnered by the very young Esteban Berlanga in his debut in a major role. She has the perfect body for Odette, with her long, expressive limbs and her swan-like neck, as well as an innate musicality and those luminous eyes which express such depth of emotion. As to her Odile, in 2008 it was so polished and displayed such fireworks that it was hard to believe it was her debut. Since then, she has sadly only danced a few handfuls of performances of the dual role, being given just two in the last season, both of which I am grateful to have seen, as she established yet another partnership (with Aitor Arrieta) that I would love to see continuing but sadly it is not to be. There are so many roles at which she excelled, including Manon in 2008/2009 with Berlanga and last season with Arrieta. Their performance in Southampton in 2018 was one of those rare, magical nights at the theatre which lives on in the mind forever, especially the final act when Cao’s fragility was intensely moving and, for me, her Act II ‘Spanish’ solo is simply the best of all the beautiful Manons I have been privileged to see. With Berlanga, she had an unforgettable chemistry which reached its peak in Nureyev’s “Romeo and Juliet” and for which he was brought back to partner her in 2015. She was meant to dance with him in Deane’s production at the Royal Albert Hall in 2014 but, due to his injury, she was partnered with Junor Souza with whom she also developed an extraordinary chemistry, being perfectly matched both physically and temperamentally. I was privileged to see her radiant Aurora, a role she was not given the opportunity to repeat in 2018 but gave a touch of class to the Lilac Fairy instead with her stunningly secure series of fouetté arabesques and a benevolent smile which lit up the Coliseum. In “Nutcracker”, no-one has ever done the series of walks en pointe at the start of the Sugar Plum Fairy solo as exquisitely as Cao, and her bourrées, particularly travelling backward, are to die for with that magical, floating quality I noticed in her dancing in 2005. It is not only the classical roles at which she excels but I will also remember her scene-stealing solo in “In the Middle Somewhat Elevated” where she appeared to insouciantly stalk the stage looking for victims. Then again in Forsythe’s “Approximate Sonata 2016” performed in 2018 with Francisco Bosch, there was a wonderful rhythm and dynamism to her dancing which eluded some of her colleagues. In the same programme, she and Souza added a touch of class to Barton’s “Fantastic Beings”. Last season, she repeated her interpretation of Frida Kahlo in “Broken Wings” which had me hooked on the ballet when I first saw it in 2016. I also remember a number of years ago her beauty being exploited to the full in “Afternoon of a Faune” by Jerome Robbins which she danced with Carlos Acosta at one of his Sadler’s Wells performances. I will also never forget her appearances in two ballets by Roland Petit: as the beautiful but merciless figure of death in ‘Jeune homme’ and as an extremely sexy Carmen to Fabian Reimair’s Don Jose. At the dress rehearsal, their pas de deux were incredibly steamy but did not reach quite that level of eroticism in the performance. When I asked why, I was told that the person staging it had asked them to tone it down! However, it led to Cao being asked to guest in Petit’s ‘Chauve-Souris’ (a version of “Die Fledermaus) with the New National Ballet in Tokyo. Speaking of steamy, the poster for the Ballets Russes programme at Sadler’s Wells Theatre a number of years ago featured Cao and Arionel Vargas in a clinch from “Scheherazade” that was so passionate I am sure it had something to do with the performances selling out! In the past few years, Cao has twice been on maternity leave and has returned both times stronger than ever technically, with an even deeper understanding of her roles but sadly has been woefully underused, even though she has gained rave reviews from the critics for the roles she has been given the chance to perform, latterly stealing the show as the Stepmother in “Cinderella”. Last year Cao attained her teaching certificate from the Royal Ballet School and has been teaching at various summer schools for some time (she was also a mentor for BBC4’s recent Young Dancer of the Year) so it is reassuring to know she is passing on her passion for dance and her artistry to the next generation. She will be one of the dancers in the “Dancing for a Dream” gala being organised by Laurretta Summerscales at the New Woking Theatre on 10 November 2019 and I sincerely hope this will not be the last time we see the miraculous dancing of Begoña Cao on an English stage. I know there are many more of her performances that have given me such pleasure over the years and I hope other contributors will add their memories here. Edited August 2, 2019 by alison To add paragraphing 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Irmgard, thank you for this lovely tribute to Begona Cao. I've loved her performances over the years and will miss her with ENB. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 A lovely dancer and having been on the receiving end of her teaching I can vouch for a wonderfully warm and encouraging lady who I'm pretty sure got the best out of all of us on that workshop. I would certainly look out for any classes she might offer to amateurs in the future. I didn't know about this Woking gala(Woking is where I first started to learn ballet with a Mrs Brewer!) but will look it up. Thanks for that tribute Irmgard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irmgard Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Apologies, it is the New Victoria Theatre, Woking. This is a rather wonderful way of crowdfunding for treatment for Laurretta's nephew who has severe cerebral palsy. She is gathering a great roster of dancers for it. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 What a wonderful resume of Begona Cao's career, Irmgard. It is a fitting tribute to a treasured ballerina who has given so many of us so much pleasure over the years. If I were to chose just 3 highlights, they would be: her Odette/Odile at the Liverpool Empire which I saw from "the Gods". But Begona reached up to us up there, projecting both roles fully (and executing some spot-on fouettees)! As Irmgard has said, her Manon (in Southampton) last season was something really special as was her Frida in Broken Wings (at Sadlers Wells). In both of these works, she completely inhabited her character and took her audience with her on their journeys. Begona is a rare artist who will be sorely missed on the UK stage. It is good to know that she is already teaching because she has so much to offer to students of all ages. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauxArts Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Thank you Irmgard: very interesting reading and Ms Cao clearly has much more to give to the ballet world - how fortunate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Thank you very much for that, Irmgard. I hope you don't mind, but I've split your tribute into paragraphs to make it more easily digestible I'm always going to treasure the memories of all the performances of Manon I saw her in, I think. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 @Irmgard thank you for this lovely tribute to Bergona Cao. Such a beautiful ballerina - in every performance over all the years I've had the pleasure to watch her perform I have known I was watching a wonderful artist. I especially loved watching her close-up while performing with Carlos Acosta in Apollo & Afternoon' at the Lowry. That ENB have apparently not awarded her nothing more than a one sentence farewell is a disgrace! Surely a farewell performance could of been arranged - and even if (!?🙄) it couldn't be arranged, there's NO excuse to not awarding this beautiful, dedicated, long standing member of the company a fitting written tribute! What the heck is going on at ENB that everyone/anyone thought that this was acceptable? Shame on them! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Especially after her twenty two years of service to the Company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invisiblecircus Posted August 11, 2019 Share Posted August 11, 2019 On 30/07/2019 at 03:42, DD Driver said: So only 1 student from ENBS is joining the Co. this year. I believe it was 4 last year. I heard someone say that it would be a particularly difficult year for graduates of the school - as dancers might be reluctant to leave the Co. this year when there is the excitement of the exciting home at London City Island. Have the school issued a list of graduate destinations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD Driver Posted August 11, 2019 Share Posted August 11, 2019 6 hours ago, invisiblecircus said: Have the school issued a list of graduate destinations? I haven't seen an update on the ENBS website for this year I was looking at the ENB joiners, promotions, leavers this year (1 joiner from ENBS) and ENBS graduate destinations last year http://www.enbschool.org.uk/news.php?ref=graduate-destinations-2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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